Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taoyuan mayoral candidate Simon Chang (張善政) yesterday denied plagiarizing Council of Agriculture (COA) reports during his time at Acer Inc, weeks after his opponent withdrew from the race over separate plagiarism allegations.
COA Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) said that the council would look into allegations involving research sponsored by the agency.
While working as vice president at Acer, Chang applied to serve as principal investigator in a COA research project from 2007 to 2009, Chinese-language Mirror Media reported.
Photo: Chen En-huei, Taipei Times
The council approved his request and provided funding of NT$57.36 million (US$1.88 million at the current exchange rate), it said.
The reports prepared by Chang’s team fail to cite the sources of some translated texts, and contain content copied directly from media reports, journals and the council’s own publications, although the final report was never made public, Mirror Media said.
When Chang’s former opponent in the Taoyuan mayoral race, former Hsinchu mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅), faced allegations that he plagiarized his two master’s theses, Chang said that “one should drop out of the election when one loses one’s integrity,” it said.
Although the council is not academia, research commissioned by the government should adhere to certain regulations and be checked by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics before the project is closed, Chen said.
The council would explain the case to the public once everything has been clarified, he added.
In response, Chang said he was commissioned by the council’s information management center to provide information on the development of e-agriculture in other countries to research institutions in Taiwan.
Researchers collected information from journals and media reports to introduce new technologies to Taiwan, which is different from writing a thesis, he added.
His team members worked hard to gather the information, he said, adding that while there might not be a list of sources at the end of the report, “for example, one of our presentations listed the main Japanese sources.”
The project also involved holding seminars at agricultural research institutions across Taiwan to promote e-agriculture information, he said.
He is “very proud” of the project’s results, Chang said, adding that it is regrettable that this contribution to the nation’s e-agriculture development is being used to defame him.
Chang said he is also sorry for affecting Acer and Google, where he worked as chief operating officer for Asia-Pacific infrastructure.
“Our opponents should pursue a more positive way to compete instead of attempting to discredit a job that has been beneficial to the nation’s development by comparing it to a thesis plagiarism issue,” he said.
Taipei City Councilor Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) of the KMT told a news conference that if the whistle-blower’s accusations are well-founded, they should report the case, otherwise the incident would “merely be a political act.”
It is impossible to spend NT$57.36 million on a research project only to have a professor gather information, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文) said.
Chang “should be well aware of what plagiarism is, as he was an academic and a professor at National Taiwan University,” he said.
He added that Chang “is not qualified as a candidate” and asked him to “think twice before officially entering the election,” or the case might affect elections across the country.
Acer in a statement said that the project summarized agricultural development in Taiwan, applications of technology in various agencies and outcomes of e-agriculture implemented abroad.
Researchers also conducted experiments to test new technologies, such as radio frequency identification and wireless sensor networks, it added.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiao-kuang,
Hsieh Chun-lin and CNA
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
RSS